Berry Aviation, Inc. will expand its operations at San Marcos, Texas, Regional Airport with the signing of a 40-year ground lease and plans to construct a more than 31,000 square foot facility.

The new facility, 50 miles northeast of Austin, will house Berry’s maintenance and supply-chain headquarters, and will include a 20,000 square foot maintenance hangar, machine shop, non-destructive testing lab, state-of-the-art parts retrieval system, and more than 10,000 square feet of office space.

Texas Aviation Partners, the company contracted to manage the airport on behalf of the City, worked with Berry to secure the ground lease. The approximately $3.2 million investment will allow Berry to better accommodate their growing airline fleet and staff.

The facility will allow Berry to work on larger aircraft in a controlled environment and perform component overhaul for third party air carriers. Berry anticipates adding an additional 20 to 30 high-skilled employees as part of the expansion.

“San Marcos has been an excellent location for us to conduct business from for the past 25 years,” Sonny Berry, founder of Berry Aviation, Inc. said.

“We looked at several potential airports for this project and when we engaged with the leadership at the City of San Marcos and Texas Aviation Partners, we determined the best place for our company and team to expand was right here at home,” he said.

“After outgrowing our current space, we are excited about the new opportunities this expansion project presents and thankful for the ability to provide our employees with a world-class facility near their homes in the San Marcos area,” Berry added.

“The San Marcos Airport, coupled with the City’s location in this growing, thriving corridor makes our community ripe for economic development,” said city of San Marcos Mayor John Thomaides. “We are very pleased with Berry Aviation’s success in San Marcos, their position as a beacon of economic growth in the greater San Marcos region, and we look forward to 40 more years as a partner and home to the company.”

Occupying nearly 1,400 acres, San Marcos Regional Airport is the city’s largest parcel of developable land and has been managed by Texas Aviation Partners since 2010. The airport is home to more than 225 based aircraft and 13 aviation-related businesses employing over 150 people. San Marcos Regional is the only reliever airport in Texas for two international airports (Austin-Bergstrom and San Antonio International).